Is LeBron James cut from playoff-winning cloth?

So we’re only seven years into his career, a relatively small sample size. But Tuesday’s flameout in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals – the franchise’s worst home playoff loss in history – should raise some red flags and force some tough questions. And this is the biggest one: Is he cut out for this yet?

Is James cut out to win when the stakes are at their highest? When will he be ready to truly assume his place among the game’s best, the kind of recognition that only championships can provide? I’m beginning to wonder. Winning in the playoffs is hard. But the great ones do it, and do it repeatedly against top-notch competition.

If James’s Cleveland Cavaliers can’t get past the aging Celtics, and they are hanging by a thread down 3-2 going into Thursday’s Game 6 in Boston, this is what his last two seasons will look like: Two league MVP awards. Two years leading his team to the best record in the NBA. Zero trips to the NBA Finals. That doesn’t compute.

And in a big, big game, James was:

3-for-14 from the field.

0-for-4 from 3-point range.

15 points.

Fifteen.

LeBron vs. Kobe Bryant is the popular comparison, and more and more basketball fans are falling on King James’s side. But here’s what Bryant has done that LeBron hasn’t – win a title. And not just win one, but be the player that puts the team on his back and leads it to the promised land. Bryant wins consistently in the playoffs. No excuses.

Were three of Kobe’s four titles Shaq-driven? Sure. Shaqtus was the lead actor. But Bryant’s averages of 25.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.07 blocks during those three titles mean he wasn’t a bystander. He was a key component to those rings and was first-team All-NBA with Shaq on the third of those titles.

LeBron’s production is mind-boggling, there’s no denying that. Except, of course, on Tuesday night. But where has all of that production gotten the Cavs? When it’s winning time, when the games and moments are the biggest and most critical, the biggest stars shoulder the load and push all the right buttons on a title march. As spectacular a player as he is, James hasn’t done that yet. That’s a fatal flaw on his resume.

If James never wins an NBA title, his talent and his production will undoubtedly land him in the Hall of Fame, and rightfully so. He’s maybe the most talented player we’ve ever seen. But talent doesn’t mean great. Great players win. Kobe was held to the standard of making his teammates better, and he did. Same with Dwayne Wade, and he did. Players such as Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony are constantly questioned and criticized in the area of leading a team to the highest heights in the playoff pressure-cooker, and they should be.

Curiously, with James it’s been the opposite. He’s never been consistently challenged to make his teammates better. Instead, they’re always the butt of the joke; the guys holding James back, which doesn’t hold much weight when those same players helped James’s teams roll to 127 wins and the league’s best record two straight seasons.

Obviously this series isn’t over. James can get his team back on track and rally to reach the conference final. It’s up to him.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.